Paper craft project no. 474: Season's greetings

Hello! Sharing a card for the current challenge at Time Out. There is still a week left to play over there. It's a Christmas theme with the optional technique twist of using glitter and/or shimmer.

I went with just the theme and skipped the twist and created a one layer card. Using a calligraphy pen, I inked the large Christmas gift and stamped. With a wet brush, I went over the stamped image and allowed the ink to bleed. I stamped the sentiment (Joyful) and finished the card by adding splatters with Inktense pencils.

Check out the cards that the TO team + guest designer Valentyna made and then come play with us!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

Paper craft project no. 473: Thanks

Hello! Back today with a card for the current challenge at Time Out. There is still a week left to play over there. It's Home Sweet Home challenge, where we have an inspiration photo:

I took inspiration from the soft pink and flowers in the photo to create my almost one-layer card. I stamped the framed dogwood and colored it with Memento brush markers. I finished it by adding the thanks diecut.

My card doubles as a reminder for the Giving Thanks hop and linky party we're doing over at STAMPlorations. The event started yesterday with 38 participating designers, including my TO teamies Shona and Anita :o) 

Check out the cards that the TO team + guest designer Hazel made and then come play with us!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

Paper craft project no. 472: Thankful and grateful

A big hop happening over at STAMPlorations today: the 2nd Giving Thanks Blog Hop. There are 38 designers in the hop (15 awesome guest designers representing various challenge blogs and events), a linky party for you to share your "thankful" or "grateful" projects, and tons of prizes up for grabs.

I made 2 cards using the new products for the hop. Here's card #1. I created the background by dry-brushing several gouache paints and then die-cut the panel using the medium die in the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle dies. I stamped the harvest basket (Many Blessings) on mixed media paper, colored it with the same gouache colors I used for the background, and die-cut with the coordinating die. Then I die-cut the Thankful twice and layered them.

Now for card #2. With a #8 flat brush, I dry-brushed gouache paints again on the card base. On tissue paper, I stamped the basket of apples (Be Thankful), decoupaged it using matte gel medium, and colored the image with more gouache paint. I die-cut Grateful twice and layered them as well and the card's done, easy peasy :o)

I hope you'll check out the event and see the projects that the other designers made. You have until the end of the month to leave comments and link up a project or two of your own. You'll find all the details here. Plus if you scroll down some more, you'll find links to all the designers.

And last, there's a huge sale on the STAMPlorations store. Select stamps, stencils, and dies are 35% off + all order of $25 and up get free worldwide shipping.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

An InLinkz Link-up

Paper craft project no. 471: Magical holiday season CAS card

Sharing a card today featuring the awesome stamp set designed by the equally awesome Kimberly Wiener! NORDIC KNIT TAG is being released under the Limited Run Stamps line by STAMPlorations :o) We're having a mini hop and one lucky crafter who leaves a comment on the STAMPlorations blog and designers' blogs will win Kimberly's set.

Pretty cool stamp set, right? Just begs for a clean and simple card -- which is exactly what I did. I die-cut the medium tag from the Luggage Tag dies on white card stock then I placed it at an angle over my card base, securing it with washi tape underneath so it wouldn't move while stamping. I placed the card base on my DIY stamping press and stamped the snowflake border in two different colors. Then I stamped the pair of reindeer in red and the sentiment (from Warm Hands, Warm Hearts) in black. 

Hope you'll check out the cards that the stamp designer herself made + cards and tags by Toni and Vicki featuring these fun stamps. Just head over here. And until Tuesday, November 15, Kimberly's Nordic Knit Tag stamp set is 10% off at the store.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

Paper craft project no. 470: Jingle bells tag for Holiday TAGplorations

Hey guys! I'm back with another tag I made for the Holiday TAGplorations blog hop and linky party at STAMPlorations. Hope you'll check out the event -- 10 crafters who leave comments and/or link up their holiday tags (any holiday!) by November 25 will win gift certificates and some sweet CUTplorations tag dies. For the full details, click here. :o)

For my holiday tag, I used the largest die from the CUTplorations Luggage Tags nesting dies for my tag base (a thin kraft chipboard). Then I stamped "CHRISTMAS" (Trendy Christmas Trees) in pumpkin pie ink -- on white CS, it would be a dark orange-y color, but on my chipboard, the ink came out a nice brown that's slightly darker than the base. Then on mixed media paper, I stamped the large Christmas bells, colored them with Zig markers, and then fussy cut. I die-cut the Jingle Bells die three times and layered them or dimension. I wanted to emboss the top layer but I couldn't find my Versarmark inkpads. I have one big one and 3 small ones but since my work area is such a mess, who knows where they are. I did find my Delicata golden glitz inkpad and thought that might work so I swiped that on then heat embossed Jade Pearl (green) embossing powder. I rather liked the hint of gold undertone (you can see it in the photo).

I hope you'll check out the tags that the STAMPlorations girls made for the first Holiday TAGplorations event. And we'd love for you to join in on the fun and share your holiday tags -- remember, your tags don't have to be Christmas tags...they can be any holiday you celebrate!

Linking up to these fab challenges:

• Just Keep on Creating November Anything Goes Link-Up
• Creatilicious Challenge #102 - Anything Goes (Optional: Anything but a Card)
• Crafting Circle Crafty Awesomeness Challenge - Holiday

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

Paper craft project no. 469: Merry Christmas tag for Holiday TAGplorations

Hey, there! Today is the start of the first STAMPlorations Holiday TAGplorations Blog Hop & Linky Party. The girls and I have come together to share our holiday tags. Plenty of prizes up for grabs too -- gift certificates and tag dies will be given away to 10 lucky crafters who leave comments and/or link up holiday tags. For the full details, click here. :o)

For my first holiday tag, I used the largest die from the CUTplorations Luggage Tags nesting dies and stamped the large poinsettia twice then colored it with watercolor brush markers. I layered two Merry Christmas phrase diecuts and embossed it with gold. Pretty simple but bold tag :o)

I hope you'll check out the tags that the rest of the team made -- I promise you won't be disappointed. The Holiday TAGplorations designers gallery is one of the best collections of holiday tags around :o)

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

Paper craft project no. 468: Blessings one layer card

Hello! Back today with a card for the current challenge at Time Out. There is still a week left to play over there. It's an Inspired by Words challenge -- "Give thanks with a grateful heart."

I decided to keep it simple and went with a one layer card with autumn colors + an image and sentiment apropos for Thanksgiving season. I used the sketched over at CAS(E) This Sketch.

First I stamped the basket of apples (Thankful for Autumn), colored it with Inktense pencils, and masked it before stamping the grungy borders three times in Distress inks. Stamped the sentiment from the same set in black and then added the grungy brackets (Art Marks) in red.

Check out the cards that the TO team + guest designer Karren made and then come play with us!

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)

Paper craft project no. 467: Count your blessings one layer card

Happy November! It's time for a new challenge at The Mixed Media Card Challenge. I went with a simple one layer card using the stencil monoprint technique. Inked up the Bloom Boldly stencil with Distress inks, spritzed it with water, and then placed my card base flat on it.  Then I added splatters using a waterbrush and Inktense pencils. Achieved the crisp stamping of my sentiment (Many Blessings -- new release, comes bundled with coordinating dies and stencil too!) using the DIY stamping press I put together (cost me just under $20 in materials to build), and the card's done :o)

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to smile :o)